Likely Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy plans deep austerity

MADRID, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Voter anger over Spain's economic plight is certain to sweep the centre-right People's Party to an election victory on Sunday, giving it a resounding mandate to slash public spending and try to rescue the country from the euro zone crisis.

The Socialists, in power for seven years, are set to become the latest political victims of Europe's economic woes as voters punish them for failing to heal the sickly economy and fix the worst unemployment rate in the European Union.

Spain's neighbours on the so-called periphery of the euro area, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, have all replaced their leaders as the crisis in the single currency zone deepens.

The People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, has a runaway 17 point lead over Socialist Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba and is heading for the widest win for a conservative party since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s after the General Francisco Franco dictatorship.

With Spain sliding into an economic recession, unemployment dominated the campaign along with fear that the country will succumb to Europe's debt crisis, which has already pushed the government's borrowing costs dangerously high.

"I don't know if Rajoy will be able to fix things, it's so messed up, but things cannot get any worse for me. If it weren't for my parents helping me out, I'd be a bum on the street right now, it's humiliating," said out-of-work truck-driver Fernando Garcia, 40, who plans to vote for the People's Party, or PP.